DHAKA NEWS
Dhaka, Feb 29 The United Nations has warned that millions of children are growing up in urban slums of Bangladesh enduring poverty and deprivation, but the aggregate figures of children of cities obscure their disparities.
The State of the World's Children 2012 released by Unicef on Wednesday showed that like other parts of the world, children in the city slums of the country are 'invisible'.
"They (children in slums) are often invisible to decision makers and lost in hazy world of statistical averages that conceal grave inequities," Unicef Bangladesh representative Pascal Villeneuve said at the report launching ceremony in the capital.
Presenting the report, Arifa S. Sharmin, communication manager of Unicef, said amid growing urbanisation, 28 percent of the total population of Bangladesh lives in cities today.
The report showed over half the world's 7 billion people now live in cities.
"Families migrate from rural to cities in search of economic opportunities, but they have to live even more miserable life once landing in a slum."
Sharmin said children in city slums are denied basic services like education, health, water and sanitation, but their situations are often represented by aggregate figures that show city children to be better off than their rural counterparts.
The 2009 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of the government made it clear that conditions in slums are much worse than those in most rural areas, even going by service delivery-type indicators, such as secondary education attendance rates and skilled attendance at birth.
The survey showed the under-five mortality rate in slums is 79 percent higher than the overall urban rate, and 44 percent higher than the rural rate.
While attendance in secondary education is 48 percent in rural areas and 53 percent in cities, it is only 18 percent in slums.
Economist Abul Barkat, speaking at the launching, urged the government not to make plans with aggregate figures.
"It conceals the real picture," he said and added that the ongoing urbanisation in Bangladesh is basically 'forced' migration.
"People have to leave villages in search of livelihood. Sometimes they lost all in river erosion," he said and that in such (forced) migration, 'poor become poorer'.
Unicef urges governments to put children 'at the heart of urban planning' and to extend and improve services for all.
Former secretary Dhiraj Kumar Nath, who currently works on urban health planning, agreed with the Unicef findings.
He told that municipalities do not take slums into cognizance. "That's why slum dwellers do not get civic amenities," he said and that children grow amid insecurities in slums as most of their parents work either as rickshaw pullers or maid servants leaving them unattended at home.
Nath said they are drafting an urban health strategy to find ways of ensuring healthcare to city dwellers.
The State of the World's Children 2012 released by Unicef on Wednesday showed that like other parts of the world, children in the city slums of the country are 'invisible'.
"They (children in slums) are often invisible to decision makers and lost in hazy world of statistical averages that conceal grave inequities," Unicef Bangladesh representative Pascal Villeneuve said at the report launching ceremony in the capital.
Presenting the report, Arifa S. Sharmin, communication manager of Unicef, said amid growing urbanisation, 28 percent of the total population of Bangladesh lives in cities today.
The report showed over half the world's 7 billion people now live in cities.
"Families migrate from rural to cities in search of economic opportunities, but they have to live even more miserable life once landing in a slum."
Sharmin said children in city slums are denied basic services like education, health, water and sanitation, but their situations are often represented by aggregate figures that show city children to be better off than their rural counterparts.
The 2009 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of the government made it clear that conditions in slums are much worse than those in most rural areas, even going by service delivery-type indicators, such as secondary education attendance rates and skilled attendance at birth.
The survey showed the under-five mortality rate in slums is 79 percent higher than the overall urban rate, and 44 percent higher than the rural rate.
While attendance in secondary education is 48 percent in rural areas and 53 percent in cities, it is only 18 percent in slums.
Economist Abul Barkat, speaking at the launching, urged the government not to make plans with aggregate figures.
"It conceals the real picture," he said and added that the ongoing urbanisation in Bangladesh is basically 'forced' migration.
"People have to leave villages in search of livelihood. Sometimes they lost all in river erosion," he said and that in such (forced) migration, 'poor become poorer'.
Unicef urges governments to put children 'at the heart of urban planning' and to extend and improve services for all.
Former secretary Dhiraj Kumar Nath, who currently works on urban health planning, agreed with the Unicef findings.
He told that municipalities do not take slums into cognizance. "That's why slum dwellers do not get civic amenities," he said and that children grow amid insecurities in slums as most of their parents work either as rickshaw pullers or maid servants leaving them unattended at home.
Nath said they are drafting an urban health strategy to find ways of ensuring healthcare to city dwellers.
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